So, while unpacking at the new pad, I found some old gaming stuff that had been lost to time. Some old Traveler stuff (props to my buddy Jim who insists that it is the best RPG ever), a Judges Guild supplement, a Role-Aids supplement, and even TWERPS. I posted to my FB profile about this find, and a few avid gamers chimed in about it, not in a nostalgic way as much as "...I remember seeing that in a catalog...what is it?"
TWERPS (The World's Easiest Role-Playing System) was seemingly half-satire, half-revisionist gaming. By giving players only one stat (Strength) and turning them loose on a small hex grid map with little else to help them but some skills from their Class, it was beer-and-pretzels roleplaying at its best. In my mini collection of TWERPS stuff were a few zip-lock baggies (the actual original packaging, mind you) containing the rules on just a few sheets of photocopied printer paper, the tiniest 20 sider in the world (really a ten sider repeating twice), and some chits and a map. Many supplements followed including campaign supplements for Universal-style horror films, space adventures, cyberpunk, and even a later supplement that was a send up of the X Files.
My question to the masses - did anyone actually play this? Was it a novelty that you saw in the back of a Wargames West catalog that you bought with full intention of running to fill time during game prep? Any good TWERPS tales? (Hmm...TWERPS tales...that could be a good supplement...)
Resources I found if you want to reminisce more:
3 comments:
Aha - I actually played TWERPS once or twice. I had a buddy in... I want to say it was in junior high... anyway, he loved the idea behind roleplaying games, but just didn't 'get it'. He was one of those guys always asking where the board was to move your piece around... *sigh*
Because we were good friends, I ended up springing for the TWERPS - Fly By Knights setting from my own pocket money (I'd remembered seeing ads for it in SHADIS, I believe). It was pretty fun from what I recall, and the maps and chits and such helped my pal come to terms with what was going on and learn the basics. We eventually moved on to another relatively simple game, Toon from Steve Jackson Games, and then finally I got him going on D&D.
I've lost touch with this friend over the years, but I'd like to think I started him out on some sort of life-long obsession in RPG's... and TWERPS is to blame.
Toon was fantastic! A rules light game, where you play Warner Bros.-esque cartoon characters dropping anvils on one another? Brilliant.
Didn't a re-release of it come out a few years ago? Great stuff in the beer and pretzels vein. (Or Root Beer and Pretzels, at the age that I played it...)
Yeah, I think something came out for it in 2006 or 2007, but I didn't keep up with it. I still have the orange cover 'deluxe edition' from 1991, and that's probably all I'll ever need!
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